Monolingual dictionaries are intended for native speakers and as a consequence focus on a single language (e.g. English, German, French). Some of the more well-known monolingual English dictionaries include the Oxford English Dictionary, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, and the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. For non-native speakers, there are specialized monolingual dictionaries known as learner dictionaries. For instance, the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary are written specifically for non-native speakers of English, and thus contain simpler definitions than would be found in a typical monolingual dictionary and a greater emphasis on vocabulary, such as idioms or phrasal verbs, that give individuals learning English as an additional language considerable difficulty.

2.Bilingual dictionaries

Bilingual dictionaries focus on two languages and are designed for individuals who are native speakers of a particular language learning another language as an additional language. For English speakers, there are English/Spanish dictionaries, English/Italian dictionaries, and so forth.

3.Unabridged/abridged dictionaries

The major dictionary makers will periodically release large unabridged dictionaries from which they will produce smaller, abridged dictionaries that contain a subset of the words in the unabridged dictionary as well as newer words that have entered the language since the publication of the unabridged version. For instance, Webster’s Third New International, an unabridged dictionary produced by the G & C Merriam Company in Springfield, MA, was released in 1961. Since the publication of this dictionary, Merriam- Webster has published eleven collegiate dictionaries – dictionaries that contain fewer entries than Webster’s Third but that at the same time have been updated so that they contain newer words than the unabridged version. Because the Webster name is so closely associated with the nineteenth-century American lexicographer Noah Webster, many dictionaries have been published under the Webster name. However, the G & C Merriam Company is the only publisher of a Webster dictionary having any connection to Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary, American Dictionary of the English Language.

4.Thesauruses

These are dictionaries that specialize in providing synonyms for the main entries that they contain. One of the more famous English Thesauruses is Roget’s Thesaurus, published in 1852 and written by Peter Roget. Because the name of this dictionary was never copyrighted, many thesauruses contain the name Roget, even though they are not derivative of the original thesaurus.

5.Specialized dictionaries

Many dictionaries focus on vocabulary specific to a particular occupation or area of interest. Physicians and lawyers, for instance, can make use of dictionaries that define medical and legal terms, such as Tabler’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary or Black’s Law Dictionary. Musicians can consult dictionaries of musical terms, such as the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Scrabble players have dictionaries containing words permissible in Scrabble games. Since the range of interests is large, so are the number of dictionaries catering to these interests.